The first-instance trial for the accident at Hòa Bình General Hospital that killed nine people in May last year ended its sixth day on May 22 with a series of question and answer among defendants and the board of judges.— VNA/VNS Photo

HÒA BÌNH — The first-instance trial for the accident at Hòa Bình General Hospital that killed nine people in May last year ended its sixth day on May 22 with a series of question and answer among defendants and the board of judges. 

In the morning session, the court presented the testimonies of Trương Quý Dương, who was director of Hòa Bình Hospital when the accident occurred, and Trần Văn Thắng, the head of the hospital’s equipment department.

On May 29, 2017, 18 patients suffered symptoms of anaphylactic shock while receiving kidney dialysis at the kidney dialysis division of the Hòa Bình General Hospital’s Department of Intensive Care. Nine patients died.

Dương and Thắng were asked to show up to the court as persons related to the case but they refused, so the court had to present their testimonies.

According to the statement Dương gave to the Hòa Bình Province’s Police, he said the dialysis section belonged to the intensive care department. Doctor Hoàng Công Lương was assigned to give medical treatment to the patients and take part in giving first aid within the intensive care department in case of emergency or accidents.

However, doctor Lương disputed Dương’s testimony about his assignment at the hospital.

Lương said that he was a doctor in the intensive care department, not the dialysis section.

Also in the court session on Monday, Đinh Tiến Công, chief nurse of the intensive care department, affirmed that Lương’s assignment was chief doctor of the dialysis section.

Regarding the responsibilities of the hospital’s equipment department headed by Thắng, Dương said the department was responsible for purchasing, providing and maintaining machines and equipment used in the hospital.

The department’s staff had to regulate the RO water filter system for dialysis machines.

He said he did not know the Thiên Sơn Company, which signed a contract to provide equipment to the hospital, had resold the contract to Trâm Anh Company.

Meanwhile, Thắng said that defendant Trần Văn Sơn, who had worked at the department since August 2013, was in charge of managing files of medical equipment and verifying the equipment’s quality, including maintaining and repairing equipment in the dialysis section, intensive care and eye departments.

Thắng said Sơn did not give him any records relating to repairing the RO system of the dialysis section with Bùi Mạnh Cường, director of Trâm Anh Company.

The defendant Trần Mạnh Sơn disputed Thắng’s testimony.

The defendants include Bùi Mạnh Quốc, director of the Trâm Anh Water Treatment Co Ltd and a resident of the northern province of Bắc Ninh, who was prosecuted for “unintentionally causing deaths.”

The others are Trần Văn Sơn, an official of the medical material and equipment division of the Hòa Bình General Hospital, and Hoàng Công Lương, a doctor of the Department of Intensive Care of Hòa Bình General Hospital. 

Both Sơn and Lương were prosecuted for “lacking responsibility causing serious consequences.”

According to the indictment of the provincial People’s Procuracy, Quốc had repaired and maintained the RO filter system of the dialysis machines. During the process, however, the machines’ water supply tubes were not purified carefully, leaving a chemical residue.

After the pasteurisation of the RO filter system, Quốc failed to check the quality of water samples before handing the system over to the hospital. He was charged with “unintentionally causing deaths.” 

Sơn, 28, who was in charge of checking and supervising the replacement and maintenance of the filter system, failed to complete his assigned tasks. Nephrologist Lương, 32, allowed the dialysis treatment to commence without checking the water quality of the machines. — VNS